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Equus
Equus is an armored train that defends the factories of Fouzen. Present as much to keep Darcsen laborers in line as to prevent enemy invasions, it is commanded by no less than General Berthold Gregor, looking down from the rails high above his minions. It serves as the boss of Chapter 10 - "Liberation of Fouzen." Profile Imperial General Gregor personally aided in the design and development of this large armored train. Designed to fit Europan broad gauge rails, the entire chassis of this Ragnite engine is plated in thick armor. It tows a massive cannon car and a heavily armored defense car, both equipped with machine guns and standard cannons. At the rear is a final command car from which Gregor presides. Installed in Fouzen upon its completion, it is used to deter both enemy invasion and Darcsen laborer escape attempts. Equus in Valkyria Chronicles It was obvious to all concerned that while Equus remained in action, Fouzen would never be liberated; as a result, Squad 7 first infiltrated the camp with orders to locate an informant who claimed to have a plan to defeat the seemingly invulnerable train. This man proved to be Zaka, a Darcsen prisoner at the concentration camp used to hold those forced to work in the mines and factories. He had assembled a makeshift Ragnite bomb from spare and stolen components, which he planned to set at the base of the rail bridge the train would occupy. Welkin and his team secured Zaka a path by destroying a small bridge Imperial reinforcements were using, then, using the various freight elevators, fought their way close enough to detonate the bomb. Even as the bridge fell apart beneath him, Gregor refused to believe his defeat was possible. Equus plunged into the river below, taking the Imperial general to the bottom with it. Equus in the Valkyria Chronicles anime Equus shows up much earlier on in the anime since the battle in which Fouzen was captured in the first place shows up in episodes 7 and 8. In this earlier battle, the main cannon is shown deploying submunition shells which cause heavy casualties to the Gallians. The Fouzen missions are shown in episodes 13 and 14 of the anime; as per the game, Zaka has to set a bomb on the bridge, as part of a more complicated mission with multiple teams of Militia and resistance fighters variously liberating the concentration camp, destroying Imperial tanks, and so on. Rather than setting the bomb with the Equus already on the bridge, the idea is to set explosives on the tracks and then lure Gregor into position to detonate them. In the event, only half of the charges detonate, derailing the Equus but failing to destroy the bridge, unfortunately the train's main artillery gun remains fully functional, and Gregor orders Welkin to surrender or he will have train opens fire on the fleeing Darcsens. When Welkin can't decide what to do, Faldio Landzaat orders the unit to attack, and Gregor fires on the escaping prisoners, killing the majority (in the game, they are killed by retreating soldiers burning down their barracks, after Gregor dies). Isara and Ramal Valt ultimately save the day by firing at the train's ammo compound with a stolen Imperial Light Tank, detonating the shells and causing it to explode, taking out Gregor in the process. Trivia *Equus, like many boss enemies, has a Latin name. "Equus" means horse or steed, and is the genus of mammal that includes horses, donkeys, and zebras. *It's not entirely clear how the locomotive operates; cosmetically, it resembles a steam locomotive, but has no connecting rods or valve gear. Presumably, this means Equus uses an electric drive system like a diesel locomotive rather than a boiler. Despite this, however, when the locomotive moves, it makes a chugging sound, implying that it is a steam engine. In Valkyria Chronicles 4, on the other hand, the Armored Trains (supposedly the same model of locomotive) make a noise far more like some kind of large electric motor. *Equus' gun is named after a real railroad gun, the German Krupp K5; like the gun on Equus, it was a 280mm cannon. The Equus' cannon is a hybrid of K5 and the even larger 800mm "Dora" cannon, with the rail bogies and the cannon itself based on the latter. The crane on the K5's generator unit is moved to the back of the gun housing, and the gun itself is on a turntable rather than fixed. The two joined-together cars are based on armoured railcars used by Germany during the Second World War, while the locomotive looks to be based loosely on a German BR52 "Kriegslokomotive," with an armoured shell covering the front and an armoured cab. *The firing sound effect is from a slightly different 280mm cannon based on the K5, the American M65 Atomic Cannon; specifically, it seems to be sampled from this film of the Upshot-Knothole Grable nuclear test. *Adolf Hitler was known to use an armoured train as his personal transport, and was very fond of rail artillery; images exist of him inspecting the giant Dora gun with other members of the Nazi high command. Given Berthold Gregor's obvious Nazi inspiration, this is most likely the reason for his vehicle of choice. *Equus' given weight is about half what it should be; a K5 gun alone weighs 218 tons, and would easily make 288 tons by itself if fitted with a rotation engine, gearbox and turntable. In addition, a K5 gun carriage in firing position is just 7 metres shorter than the entire Equus train. The trains used to move the K5s in real life were around one thousand feet long, and a typical battery with two guns required three such trains. *The locomotive and rear cannon car from Equus are re-used in Valkyria Chronicles 4 for a series of Armored Trains defending an Imperial supply depot in the second battle of Chapter 7: these have a central flatcar rather than towing a railroad gun. The description in-game makes reference to the trains being of a type developed at Gregor's behest, and that a similar one is used to guard Fouzen. 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